Thursday, June 27, 2013

Hawaii: Maui


Although I don’t like to pick favorites…..Maui was my favorite island! Likely for these two reasons: waterfalls and beaches! Our ship docked for two full days at Kahului Bay- in the northern part of the Island. They made it very easy for us to park near the port, so we rented a car for two days (stayed on the ship at night).
Day 1: Hana Highway.
I heard it was a road of narrow hairpin-turns and was prepared for the worst. Yes, there were tons of turns and the bridges were 1-lane, but compared to the highways in Illinois--the pavement was in really good shape! And it was Sunday, so I didn’t feel like there was much traffic. Thanks to a friend, we had an excellent guide book (Maui Revealed) which basically took us on a waterfall scavenger hunt! Some were quick easy stops while a couple we hiked to, or drove off the road on quite an adventure! Here are some pictures on our road trip to Hana, and beyond!
Description from book: "¼ mile past the 13 mile marker, there’s a tiny turnout on the far side of the white 1911 bridge. About 800 or so feet (10-20 minutes) up-stream is a pretty and lacy unnamed falls on the Punalau stream (we’ll call it Panalau Falls). This is one you have a reasonable chance of having it to yourself for three reasons: You can’t see it form the road, it’s never been written about as far as authors know, and you’ll have to walk on the (*Usually) dry stream boulders the whole way. (When the boulders are wet they’re pretty slippery)." 
*Yup, they were super-slippery when we were there, but made for a fun adventure!



















Ching’s Pond
 After mile marker 18—we turned on to a straight road into the settlement of Wailua and viewed this enormous, muli-tiered Waikani Falls, which drops 1,000 feet.


 Here's a look down on Wailua Valley

Upper Waikani Falls (called Three Bears Falls)


Pua’a Ka’a State Park:  two easily accessible waterfalls. We parked by a family of University of Illinois alums! My Illinois State University umbrella sparked their attention! 













Makapipi Falls: Directions- pull over on the far side of the bridge shortly past the 25 mile marker. If you walk out to the center of the bridge on the ocean side, look straight down. (Be careful not to topple over) you'll see you are directly above the spot where Makapipi Falls plunges into a large pool. [I had Nathan take these pictures!]











Blue Pool--I would love to hear from others if you actually got close to this one. It is our worst picture, but our most adventurous journey. Nathan likely won't want to talk about it, but I was persistent as in the book it is described as: "It's right out of a Hollywood movie set. When you're dreaming about frolicking at a waterfall, you're dreaming about blue pond." Hello--who wouldn't want to at least try to find this! If you look closely in the trees, you can see the tiers of the falls. 
Wai'anapanapa Black Sand Beach and Park


We did make it to Hana! And a couple of our favorite waterfalls were actually on the road past Hana!
Yes, Dad, there are cows in Hawaii!

Wailua Falls
Our final destination was 'Ohe'o Gulch- AKA '7 Sacred Pools.' It was a series of waterfalls and pools at the shoreline that was really amazing. 











On that note, I will end this blog post........I see have have way too many pictures of waterfalls (I think the book termed it 'waterfall fatigue!'). I will save the Maui Beaches for my next post!

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